CPS to Parents: Contingency Plan Is for ‘Neediest Children’

During a town hall teleconference with parents Thursday night, Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard fielded questions about the system’s “Children First” contingency plan in the event of a teachers strike on Monday, Sept. 10.

“We’re looking to serve the neediest children,” said Brizard. Of the district’s 400,000 students, he anticipates 150,000 or fewer to show up at the CPS sites. Those who do will not have their time counted as an official attendance day.

“We cannot run schools,” said Brizard, unwittingly handing CTU a gift of a sound bite.

The sites will be staffed, as CSJ previously reported, by principals, assistant principals and non-union employees from Central Office, many of whom, Brizard noted, previously worked in schools. CPS is aiming for at most a 25-to-one ratio of students to adults, which advocates of smaller class size find ironic, and each site will have at least one nurse on hand, yet another improvement over regular CPS standards.

Though the teleconference was intended to clarify the contingency plan, it raised nearly as many questions as it answered: Are all sites truly equipped to handle severely disabled students? What “online courses” will be available for seniors? How exactly is the Park District providing support? Brizard continually urged parents to call 3-1-1 for greater detail, which, at 9:30 this morning had less than a 10-minute wait time.

For those families who don’t fall into the “neediest” category, the parent advocacy group Raise Your Hand has compiled a list of childcare options, including a number of “strike camps.”